Staging your home sets the scene for potential buyers. A well-staged home can help it sell faster and for more money. Here are some basics for prepping your house.

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Much like detailing a used car prior to sale, staging a home allows it to put on its best face. Not to be confused with decorating, staging is about presentation, cleanliness, and drawing positive attention to the space inside. According to StagedHomes.com, the Web site for a unique program that provides certification and training to become an Accredited Staging Professional (ASP), 93% of homes staged by an ASP sell in less than 31 days. Home sellers can choose to do the staging themselves, take guidance from a qualified realtor, or hire an accredited professional.

Letting Go
The first step when staging a home to sell is to cut emotional ties, which means temporarily living without your most precious belongings surrounding you. When the house is put on the market, it should be thought of as a product, not a home. Although you might still be living in it while it’s for sale, it should not look that way to potential buyers. “The way that you live in your home and the way that you market it and sell it are two different things,” says Barb Schwarz, author of Home Staging: The Winning Way to Sell Your House for More Money and recognized as one of the founders of the home staging industry. “Once your home becomes a house, it can become a product, and people want to buy the product that has the best wrapper.” One way for the seller to be able to look at his home objectively is to take tours of homes for sale. “A walk through the neighbor’s house can help the home seller to see things from the homebuyer’s point of view,” says Craig Schilling, founder of Real Estaging, a home staging company in Chicago.

Selling the Space
Part of letting go means packing up all unnecessary “junk.” Anything that can be lived without should be packed up and either tucked away or put into storage. Put away knickknacks, memorabilia, superfluous furniture, lamps, or anything else that adds to the home’s clutter and distracts from what is really important: the space. “You’re supposed to be selling the space, not the stuff,” says Schwarz. “The value of the house is in the space.” When potential buyers walk through an unstaged home, they tend to focus on everything but the space, particular in an overly cluttered home. A sparse, staged home is open, allowing the size of the rooms to be the main attraction.

Packing alone isn’t enough, however. The staged home must sparkle, and to do that will take some elbow grease and attention to detail. “A staged home needs to be Q-tip-clean,” adds Schwarz. For the exterior of the home, cleaning can mean power-washing the siding, scrubbing and staining the deck, and taking down unsightly cobwebs. Inside the house, any dust, stains, and scratches must go. Every corner of every room—from the windows to the baseboards—should be made to look new.

Setting the Stage
With clutter packed away and all the surfaces shining, homeowners should go through each room arranging furniture and configuration to best present the space. Also, each room should clearly look like what it’s designed to be. “Make each room what it is,” suggests Schwarz. “If it’s a dining room, make it a dining room.” Consider the focal points of each room, and arrange those focal points to accentuate space and function. In bedrooms, for example, the bed is the focal point. When a potential buyer stands in the doorway to look inside a bedroom, the bed should not block the view of the room or make the room look small. If certain rooms lack the necessary furniture to make them what they are, the homeowner might consider borrowing or renting furniture for staging purposes.

Another investment worth making is in paint. Neutral and light colors will make a room look big, while dark walls shrink the size of a room. Furthermore, off-kilter colors and color combinations can make for a bad first impression of a home. The small investment in time and money to paint the walls can make the difference when it comes to time on the market and selling price.

Hiring a Professional
The home staging business is a fast-growing industry, and there are many people who call themselves professional home stagers. Accredited staging professionals are typically members of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals and can be found by searching by ZIP code on both organizations’ Web sites. When hiring a professional home stager, homeowners should ensure that the professional is certified as well as protected and insured. “Homeowners should call and meet two or three professionals,” says Schwarz. “Home staging is about commitment, and homeowners should know that everyone involved is committed to the job.” Home stagers can be hired to perform a range of staging services, from simple consultationto a complete “enhancement,” where the stager might bring in his/her own props, furniture, and artwork as part of the staging process.

Additionally, more and more realtors are becoming staged-home-savvy. Many are choosing the ASP certification, while others are educating themselves on the ins and outs of the practice. When choosing a realtor to help sell the home, homeowners should inquire into staging experience and ask about rates. Although the cost to have a home professionally staged will vary by market, homeowners should expect to pay anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000. “Homeowners need to remember that they are not just paying for the props or the advice; they are paying for the actual time it takes to stage the home,” says Schiller.

Whether you hire a professional home stager or use the funds toward a DIY staging job, home staging is a worthwhile investment that will almost certainly sell your home more quickly and increase your return on investment.

Maximize Appeal
The exterior of the home is the first thing a potential buyer sees, so make sure to tend to landscaping needs, make small repairs, and clean dirty siding. Here are some other quick essentials for the interior:

Pack before you move. Put everything that you can do without until your move into boxes and then put the boxes in storage or somewhere completely out of sight.

Clean. Go room to room and clean every surface until it sparkles. No cutting corners! Don’t forget the windows.

Create space. Arrange the furniture in each room to accentuate the space. Remove as much furniture as possible without making the room appear vacant. Make every room seem bigger than it is.

Paint. Freshen up your walls and make colorful ones neutral. Dark rooms are smaller in appearance, and off-kilter color combinations are distracting.

Eliminate odors. It’s not just what is seen that matters. Unsavory smells will turn the buyer off. Clean carpets, get rid of pet and food odors, light some candles, and put out some potpourri.